Organizations increasingly recognize that environmental sustainability
is an urgent problem. Green information systems (Green IS) initiatives can assist
organizations in reaching their environmental goals by providing the ability to
reduce the environmental impacts of information technology (IT) manufacturing,
operations and disposal; facilitate transparency and enhance the efficiency of
organizational resources and business processes; and foster eco-products
through technological innovation. However, the nature and type of benefits such
initiatives can accrue remain poorly understood, and accordingly, IT executives
struggle to integrate environmental aspects in the corporate strategy and to launch
Green IS initiatives. This paper clarifies the mechanisms that link organizational
beliefs about environmental sustainability to Green IT and Green IS actions
undertaken, and the organizational benefits that accrue from these actions. Using
data from a global survey of 118 senior-level IT executives, we find that Green IS
strategies mediate the relationship between environmental orientation and the
implementation of Green IT practices and Green IS practices, which in turn lead
to organizational benefits in the form of cost reductions, corporate reputation
enhancement and Green innovation capabilities. Our findings have implications
for the potential of IS to enable organizations’ environmental sustainability and
also for the differentiation of Green IT and Green IS practices.